Part 2 · Chapter 23

Yeah, I mean right now if you don't want it, because you wouldn't enjoy it so much right now. Well, with the, for example, the the the time the desire to eat is greatly amplified when you're hungry.

And then when you're full, it starts to become painful to eat. So then, you know, sometimes you could still you can still want to eat, like a lot of times if you're very hungry and you eat quickly, you'll still you'll still your stomach will still want more, or it matches that your mouth will still want more, and your stomach will be totally full and it'll be hurt, it'll be painful to eat more.

So what happens is that the the the תענוג gets taken away. And the truth is that there it's really a fight between two different desires, that there's a desire of your mouth and there's a desire of your stomach.

Mouth vs Stomach Communication Delay 1:00

And the reason why that happens is because that it takes a certain amount of time for your stomach to communicate with your mouth to tell it to stop being hungry.

So if you're very hungry and you eat quickly, then you'll still want to eat more for a while. And also, especially like sweet things will make you want to eat more.

But that's already complicated, because there there you're dealing already with you're already dealing with a with a רצון מורכב, where you have like many different desires and it's for a reason, and it's not the עצם רצון, and it's not the עצם תענוג, and so there's a whole bunch of שכל involved.

That's that's like the whole thing of תיקון, and we we talked about that already a little bit.

וכל זה, all this applies בין בתענוג ורצון פשוט ועצמי בין בתענוג ורצון מורכב שהנפש מתפשט שנמשך אחריו. And all of this applies whether you're speaking about an essential and simple pleasure and desire, or whether you're speaking about a pleasure and desire that is מורכב, it's complex, meaning that it's based on a reason, and so there's on you want this this much, and you want that that much, and there's different priorities, and it's a whole complicated system of different desires connecting to each other and preceding each other, and which this is something that's separate from you, in other words, it's not a a רצון ותענוג עצמי is something that's still part of you, and you desire like part of yourself, like we spoke about in chapter 10 with like the חפץ חסד, that that's really it's something the original desire is inside of you, that you want to be a nice person, you enjoy being nice.

Simple vs Complex Pleasure and Desire 2:03

Then there's the רצון מורכב is when it goes out of you, שהנפש מתפשט ונמשך אחריו, that the soul is spread and drawn after it, גם שאינו מעצמות, even though it's not something from connected to yourself, אלא הוא דבר נבדל, oh, it's something separate, and that's like money and food and stuff like that.

So when you want like a good piece of chocolate cake or ice cream or something, so that's like a רצון מורכב, that you're it's something separate from you that your soul is being drawn after. In either case, we see that the רצון and תענוג are really one thing.

ואמנם, however, בכלל אנו רואים שהנפש טבעו להמשך אחר דבר שיש בו תענוג. In general, we see that the nature of the soul is that it's drawn after anything that ha- is pleasurable, עד שיוכל להיות כל עצמותו נמשך ונכלל בו, until a person's whole self, their whole essence can get caught up in this pleasure,

כעונג המורכב בפרט נבדל, even and this is like the most powerful, we see that the that when it's a a תענוג מורכב in just like a very specific thing that's separate from themselves, but nevertheless, a person can get totally obsessed and carried away and caught up with this pleasure, כמו בכבוד או ממון או חכמה, מדות בחסד ודין ונצחון והתפארות וכיוצא בזה.

Examples of Complex Pleasures: Honor, Money, Wisdom 4:32

For example, let's say honor, we see that some people, they get totally engrossed, they get totally caught up in in they want honor and they want fame. And they that totally that becomes their whole life.

Or money, some people their whole life is they want money. And even though it's like just like a separate thing from them, but they're totally the pleasure they get in it totally consumes them. Or Or it could be in other things, in חכמה, in מדות, so let's say some people they're they get they like the classic professor, they get so that's totally his whole life is his intellectual work.

And then in מדות, there are some people who are very into חסד and that's like their whole life is to be kind, and some people it's דין, they want justice.

נצח, some people are very competitive and their whole life is to win, and always to be, you know, one up. התפארות means to show off. Some people they're every very need to they need everybody to praise them and to ooh and ahh at them. וכהאי גוונא, and so too with any other מדה, right, like let's say like יסוד, let's take a teacher, their whole his whole life is teaching and giving over, or מלכות, to be a king.

או בדברים שהנפש מחמדתן, or something that the soul covets, something that that a person craves and and desires, כתאוות כל תענוגי עולם הזה, like the תאווה for any of the pleasures of of this world. וכהאי גוונא.

So, that's like food and, you know, any physical thing, that person has can get totally caught up in their desire for these things. אף על פי שכל אלה אינן מבחינת עצמיות התענוג ההיולי, even though none of these things are essential pleasures coming from the תענוג היולי, from the essential תענוג, רק שהנפש תמשך ותחמוד אותם, just that the soul is drawn after that the these things and it and it craves them, or it covets them.

אבל מזה נראה שעצם הנפש הוא מבחינת תענוג היולי. But from this, that the soul is drawn after anything pleasurable, we see that the soul is like a היולי for pleasure, it's like the essence of pleasure.

Soul Drawn to Pleasure, Flees Pain 6:55

על כן תמשך אחר עונג מורכב ותברח מן הצער, and therefore the soul will be drawn after any pleasure, even a עונג מורכב, even something separate from it, and it will run away from the from pain, שהוא הפך העונג, which is the opposite of pleasure.

What this means is that we see that the soul is like this ability for pleasure. That that's, like we're going to say, it's not it's not quite the essence of the soul, but this is almost like the essence of what what a human soul is, is the ability to experience pleasure.

And that is like the that experience of pleasure is like the existence of the soul. And so anything pleasurable that the soul goes after because that's what it is.

And anything that's painful means that the the pain means that the soul is being taken out of that thing. And that's why a person goes away from something that's painful.

עד שב' קווין שקולין הן ממש, to the point that these are two equally weighed lines, that these two polar opposites of pleasure and pain are totally equal. שכפי ערך התפשטות הנפש במלוא אורו בדברי תענוג, כן תתכווץ ותתמעט אורו בצער ויגון בתכלית, that to the exact same extent that the soul, that its light, it becomes full from something that's pleasurable, like when a person has pleasure, then the the soul is feels it expresses itself and it's drawn into something, into everything, the שכל and מידות, and it's like it totally puts its whole self into this thing, and it causes a big התפשטות of the נפש.

Pleasure Expands Soul, Pain Contracts It 8:59

So, too, with the reverse, that something that's painful can cause a person to totally like remove themselves and and and it diminishes the light of the soul, and it totally that a person that's in pain will retract and withdraw from something or or, you know, into themselves to the point where they won't express anything and they won't use their their שכל or their מידות or anything will just all be total become totally dry and they won't, and mechanical and they won't express themselves at all.

And that's why very painful experiences can cause a person like to withdraw and like or somebody sometimes something traumatic, whatever, that a person will withdraw and they become pained so much, maybe even in life in general, that they that their soul doesn't express itself anymore.

On the other hand, when a person has a big pleasure, then it brings out all their qualities and they're able to do everything much better, and there's much more life and energy. vitality, because the pleasure draws the soul into everything.

Chassidus Reveals Godly Pleasure in Everything 10:06

And this is, yeah, this is what חסידות does in godliness, is that חסידות reveals the godly תענוג in everything. And that's why it brings so much more חיות into everything.